cant nerve
cells that were responsive; slowly a picture formed, nebulous and
incomplete at first. There was a mouth and then there were eyes, each
feature bringing others into focus, unfolding as a germ cell divides
and grows, calling into existence an entire creature. The picture was
nearly complete.

Still with eyes closed, he looked at the man he remembered. Dorn
Starret, five-eleven, one hundred and ninety, flesh that had once been
muscular and firm. Age, thirty-seven; black hair that was beginning to
recede from his forehead. The face was harder to define--strong,
though slightly hard, it was perhaps good looking. It was the eyes
which were at fault, Luis decided--glinting often--and there were
lines on the face that ought not to be there.

There was another thing that set the man apart. Not clothing; that was
conventional, though better than average. Luis stared into his memory
until he was able to see it. _Unquestionably the man was
left-handed._ The picture was too clear to permit a mistake on that
detail.

He knew the man, had seen him often. How and in what context? He
waited, but nothing else came.

Luis opened his eyes. He would recognize the man if he ever saw him.
This was the man who owned the gun, presumably had shot him with it,
and then had hidden it here in this room.

He thought about it vainly. By itself, the name couldn't take him back
through all past associations with the man, so he passed from the man
to Ceres. Here he was better equipped; re-education tapes had replaced
his former knowledge of the subject.

* * * * *

The asteroid belt was not rigidly policed; if there was a place in the
System in which legal niceties were not strictly observed, it was
there. What could he deduce from that? Nothing perhaps; there were
many people living in the belt who were engaged in legitimate work:
miners, prospectors, scientific investigators. But with rising
excitement, he realized that Dorn Starret was not one of these.

He was a criminal. The gallium mine was merely an attempt to cover
himself with respectability. How did Luis know that? He wasn't sure;
his thought processes were hidden and erratic; but he knew.

Dorn Starret was a criminal--but the information wasn't completely
satisfactory. What had caused the man to retrogress Luis and Luise
Obispo? That still had to be determined.

But it did suggest this: as a habitual criminal, the man was more than
ordi